When alumni and families of Gales Creek Elementary gather July 26 for a picnic and barbecue at the school, there might be more than simple summertime fun on the menu.

The event will be an opportunity for many to reconnect over games and live music and reminisce about their years at the 155-year-old school.

But for others like Joyce Sauber, who attended first- through eighth-grade at Gales Creek in the 1940s, it will likely be a time to revisit the school's closure three years ago and rekindle hope that it may someday reopen.

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"The school was the heart of the whole community," Sauber said.

Its closure, she added, "has been a loss to our community. Actually, it's been the death of our community."

Within about a year of the school closure, said reunion organizer Melinda Fischer, the town lost its post office, general store and tavern.

While some of these amenities have returned, the school has not — and residents like Amy Stuck-Zamudio say they still feel the hole in their community.

"It's just a big part of Gales Creek," Stuck-Zamudio said. "I want our town back."

Though the reunion, in its first year, didn't begin as a rally, Stuck-Zamudio says she hopes that the families who gather there will "start talking" about the school's possible reopening and how it might happen.

The decision to close the school came at the end of Yvonne Curtis' second year as superintendent, during a time when the district also cut about a quarter of its teachers.

It's one that continues to follow her as she enters her sixth year with the district, even though she has no estimate for when the school may reopen.

"Sometimes in school districts, you have to make decisions that are not popular, but my job was to look at the big picture," she said. "It was all a horrible memory that I don't want to keep reliving."

She saw that Gales Creek was one of the highest-rated schools in the district, with an active parent-teacher organization and more than 100 thriving kids.

Curtis said the district does eventually plan to reopen the school — "that's why we kept the building," she said.

The district is currently using the building as a therapeutic day school for a small group of students with special needs. The decision to separate these children from other students and schools within the district has also been a source of controversy for Gales Creek residents.

Curtis said that the district is legally obligated to educate children in the "least restrictive environment" — meaning that if it were possible to integrate students into a standard classroom or in-school special needs program, they would do so.

"These are kids that need to be separate," Curtis said.

Could it reopen?

While Curtis says she doesn't know when the school might reopen, school board Chair John Hayes and board member Kate Grandusky have other ideas.

"The question is, 'when will we fill up all this extra capacity?'" Hayes said. "My guess is in a few years."

"We're going to have an expanding population and at some point we're going to need another school," he said.

Grandusky, a Gales Creek resident and retired teacher, said she plans to remain on the board until the school reopens.

"I may be 90 years old (by then), but I hope not," she said with a laugh. She said she could see the school reopening in three to five years.

Grandusky and Sauber, who open the school's library every Wednesday night year-round, will open the library and the historical room during the reunion for alumni and families to enjoy.

Sauber, who lives close to the school, said she misses volunteering there and attending its Christmas programs, which drew community members each year.

She remembers hearing students pounding steadily on African drums that had been purchased by the school's parent-teacher organization.

"I think about that now," she said. "Music that came across the street to my house."